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Toronto should cheer John Tory’s election as mayor: Editorial

As Toronto’s next mayor John Tory must serve as a conciliator, administrator, a unifier, a diplomat and, above all, a healer.

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John Tory was elected mayor of Toronto on Oct. 27, 2014. Tory beat out Doug Ford and Olivia Chow to win the position.(Kelsey Wilson/Toronto Star)

Mon., Oct. 27, 2014

In a repudiation of the past four years and an expression of hope for the four to come, Toronto’s voters have elected John Tory as their next mayor. He is fully entitled to celebrate, having never taken victory for granted, successfully come from behind in the polls, and banished a defeat-prone political image. And Torontonians have good reason to cheer as well.

They finally have a mayor fit to be a leader instead of just serving as a punch-line.

The result was closer than many had expected, with Doug Ford delivering a strong second-place showing. It’s a testament to the resilience of so-called Ford Nation. Olivia Chow, who started out the marathon campaign as the front-runner, ended it a distant third. Had she run a stronger campaign she might well have drained enough votes from Tory to allow Ford to slip into the mayor’s office. The city is lucky that didn’t happen.

Instead of enduring “Ford more years” Toronto is poised to go in a new direction, with Tory promising stable, competent, sensible and accountable leadership. That will be a welcome and refreshing change.

“Tonight we begin the work of building One Toronto — a prosperous, fair, respected and caring Toronto,” Tory told cheering supporters in his victory speech. “We now begin building Toronto the Great.”

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It’s a heartening vision.

John Tory waits to cast his ballot Monday at the polling station at OISE on Bloor St. (Steve Russell / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Tory comes to office with a solid mandate. He no doubt would have preferred a bigger plurality. But in an aggressively contested three-person race he has achieved a clear and undisputed victory.

As mayor of Canada’s largest city, Tory will be in a unique position: no politician in the country is directly elected by more people. And he alone on city council will represent all residents — everyone — not just those in a particular ward. That should put him on solid ground when recruiting political allies in support of his policies.

Tory pledged to work with city council to move Toronto “not left, not right, but forward.” And that’s exactly the direction it needs to go.

His first order of business should be to take the measure of Toronto’s new council and pull together a coalition of sympathetic councillors to back his agenda. It’s impossible to get much done without that.

Flexibility is essential. It may be necessary to tailor different coalitions on various issues. Former mayors Mel Lastman and David Miller were exceedingly skilled at this, hardly ever losing a vote. Departing mayor Rob Ford was just the opposite, floundering about with minimal support in the last half of his term, sometimes mustering just two votes in favour of what he wanted to do — his own and that of his brother Doug.

Even setting aside Rob Ford’s humiliating history of “drunken stupors” and crack cocaine, this was clearly a failed administration.

Given Tory’s centrist views and a proven ability to draw support from across the political spectrum, he is well-placed to move his issues successfully through council. A key early vote should be on Tory’s controversial SmartTrack transit plan.

Decisions must happen quickly if this massive, 22-station “surface subway” project is to have any chance of delivery before Tory’s promised seven-year deadline. A vital first step is securing city council approval. There isn’t much point in asking Queen’s Park and Ottawa for billions of additional transit dollars for the mayor’s plan if council isn’t on board with the project.

But SmartTrack isn’t the only issue demanding attention. Although Chow lost her bid to become mayor she effectively spotlighted the plight of Toronto’s disadvantaged and proposed a number of sound measures to ease their plight. Lifting a page from her policy book, Tory should be open to introducing some progressive social programs early in his term.

In addition making people’s lives better, that would foster useful bridge-building with council’s left wing.

Many of the challenges facing Toronto are shared by municipalities across the country. A great many communities need new public transit and are grappling with public housing shortfalls and massive infrastructure deficits.

As head of Canada’s sixth largest government, Toronto’s mayor is ideally placed to act as a leading urban advocate at the national level. Tory should take up that mantle and press forward with a shared civic agenda. With a federal election expected next fall, the coming year will be an ideal time to promote municipal issues and try to wring gains from the major federal parties.

After enduring four years of embarrassment, service cuts, ethics violations, wasteful public transit flip-flops, rampant bullying, broken promises and political drift, Torontonians are ready for change at city hall. Tory comes to office with considerable public goodwill. That should stand him in good stead as he dons the mayor’s chain of office.

This city is yearning for someone who will pull people together: rich and poor; blue collar and white; downtowners and suburbanites; and Toronto’s many ethnic communities. After all the strife, bitterness and antagonism that characterized the Ford era, Tory’s job — beyond all else — is to heal.

He won our endorsement because we felt Tory has the dedication, skill, vision, experience, commitment and compassion that Toronto needs at this critical point in its history. The voters agreed. Now every resident of this city should hope he succeeds.

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